A World Without Alzheimers Disease

Booz Allen simulation introduces a megacommunity approach to Alzheimers disease prevention, detection, treatment, and care.
Alzheimers Disease MegacommunityThe Path Ahead

Alzheimers disease is a growing epidemic that will have an increasingly severe impact on the US economy and healthcare system if left unchecked. Today, as many as 5 million people suffer from Alzheimers disease and, as baby boomers age and life expectancy increases, that number is expected to grow to 16 million by 2050. With that will come rising costs and extraordinary financial and emotional burdens on caregivers. Many groups and organizations across the public, private, and civil sectors are engaged in the fight against the challenges of Alzheimers disease, but they face funding and other constraints. It will require the collective efforts of committed stakeholders working together to address the complexities of this epidemic strategically, said Booz Allen Hamilton Senior Vice President Mark Gerencser. We call this network of stakeholders a megacommunity. In a megacommunity, individual members support and expand their objectives and impact through their combined knowledge and resources. They identify mutual interests and forge new relationships and partnerships.

Convening the Megacommunity with a Strategic Simulation Summit

In September 2007, Booz Allen partnered with the Center for Health Transformation (CHT) to conduct a strategic simulation. This summit convened over 80 stakeholders from all sectors to explore how to address the challenges of Alzheimers disease. We wanted to understand how a megacommunitys constituents could collaborate to enhance prevention, detection, treatment, and care in order to mitigate the impact of Alzheimers disease on patients, caregivers, and society, said Booz Allen Senior Vice President Reggie Van Lee.
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Teams of stakeholders representing academia, devices and diagnostics, government, payors, providers, pharmaceutical companies, public advocacy groups, patients, and others worked together to address issues raised in the simulation. A Control Team oversaw the activity and played the roles of Congress, the White House, and the media. Throughout the summit, stakeholder actions were fed into a predictive model, feedback was given at each step on how actions impacted the future trajectory of the disease, and teams debriefed their actions.

Participants identified and explored key challenges that might best be conquered through collaborative efforts, as well as opportunities for working together to help find a cure for Alzheimers, said Booz Allen Vice President Susan Penfield. In fact, the megacommunity identified four specific areas where collaboration among the members is necessary. The four areas are to increase awareness of the urgency of the Alzheimers disease crisis, empower patients and caregivers, accelerate discovery, and transform the care model.

Translating Discovery into Action

Booz Allen is now helping the megacommunity move from planning to action by supporting the Alzheimers Study Group (ASG) and Leaders Engaged on Alzheimers Disease (LEAD). The ASG is a task force of national leaders whose mandate is to create an Alzheimers National Strategic Plan. ASG leaders, including Newt Gingrich, Bob Kerrey, Mark McClellan, and Sandra Day O'Connor, are committed to assessing the adequacy of the country's current efforts to combat Alzheimer's disease and recommending strategies to accelerate progress toward defeating this disease. LEAD is the formal name for the Alzheimers disease megacommunity and has accepted the mandate to first inform and then execute the national strategic plan. LEAD is organized into an Executive Leadership Council and four action-oriented workgroups. Said Gerencser, The ultimate goal of this megacommunity is to create a world without Alzheimers disease. Until that happens, we must ensure the proper care of Alzheimers disease patients and their families in a more comprehensive, compassionate, and collaborative manner than we currently do. Organizations from each of the three sectorspublic, private, and civil must all collaborate in determining the best way to achieve this, and the best course of action to make this vision a reality. Mark Gerencser and Reginald Van Lee, along with Booz Allen Vice Presidents Fernando Napolitano and Christopher Kelly, co-authored the book MegacommunitiesHow Leaders of Government, Business and Non-Profits Can Tackle Today's Global Challenges Together. story posted July 30, 2008

Additional Information on Megacommunities

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